It’s hard to see Bleach as anything other than one of the biggest anime franchises of all time, and it’s served as inspiration for its fair share of stories, that followed. Some anime utilize action, storytelling, and character designs that are clearly reminiscent of Bleach, and that’s especially true for any show with the basic premise of characters with spiritual powers fighting demonic creatures of some sort.

For some anime, the inspiration isn’t even accidental, as Bleach has been explicitly mentioned as an inspiration for many high-profile anime, and overall, it’s interesting to note just how big of an impact Bleach has managed to have on its industry.

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15 Fire Force Captures The Core Of Bleach’s Aesthetic

Produced by David Production, based on the manga by Atsushi Okubo.

David Production's Fire Force takes place in a world where following the Great Cataclysm, spontaneous combustion became a regular thing and causes people to turn into monsters with fire-based abilities called Infernals. The Fire Force is an organization of people with pyrokinetic abilities who protect people from Infernals, and when the young Shinra Kusakabe s Company 8, he'll soon learn that there's far more to their world than anyone could have known.

In addition to being another anime about people with supernatural powers fighting against demonic creatures, Fire Force’s stylish action and character designs are highly reminiscent of Bleach’s signature style, and the fact that that could be seen as far back as Soul Eater helps sell that point even better. The collected volumes of the manga even use Bleach’s gimmick of characters against a white background with the volume title spread across the entire cover, and it all comes together to make a series that greatly follows Bleach, intentional or otherwise.

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14 Noragami Adds A New Twist To Bleach’s Premise

Produced by Studio Bones, based on the manga by Adachitoka.

Studio Bones' Noragami stars Hiyori Iki, a girl whose soul slips out of her body against her and has knowledge of the spiritual realm called the Far Shore because of it. It's through this affliction of Hiyori's that she meets Yato, a nameless kami without a shrine, and Yato agrees to help fix Hiyori's body if she can find a way to have people revere him as a proper deity.

Noragami has the same basic premise as Bleach with characters using their spiritual powers to help the innocent, but in a unique twist, Noragami expands on and incorporates Japanese culture and mythology to a far greater degree than Bleach did. It also inverts Bleach’s gender roles by making the female protagonist the human with spiritual powers and the male protagonist the spiritual being in need of help, and with the story having a romance develop between them, it does a lot to stand out as its own thing while still managing to build on what made Bleach work.

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13 D.Gray-man Plays Out Bleach's Story With A New Religious Element

Produced by TMS Entertainment; Based on the manga by Katsura Hoshino

TMS Entertainment's D.Gray-man is set in an alternate 19th century where humanity is plagued by monsters called Akuma. To combat the threat of Akuma, a religious order of exorcists called the Black Order harnesses the power of Innocence to destroy the Akuma and their masters, the Noah Clan, reincarnations of the biblical Noah and people who survived the flooding of the world.

One of the best steampunk anime of all time, D.Gray-man is a rather underrated series thatdoes a great job of capturing the same appeal as Bleach. Not only do both anime involve organizations of people dressed in black battling against demonic creatures, but D.Gray-man's usage of Christian themes and history adds a unique twist to Bleach's aesthetic, in addition to making it stand out among anime, in general. Add in an engaging cast and unique steampunk aesthetic, and any fan of Bleach is bound to get a lot out of D.Gray-man.

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12 Bungo Stray Dogs Adds An Engaging Twist To Bleach's Formula

Produced by Studio Bones; Based on the manga by Kafka Asagiri

Studio Bones' Bungo Stray Dogs stars Atsushi Nakajima, a young man kicked out of his orphanage due to his ability to turn into a vicious weretiger. This leads to Atsushi being recruited into the Armed Detective Agency, an organization for handling crimes committed by people with powers like him, and the cases Atsushi and his friends take on slowly escalate into an affair that puts their entire world at risk.

Bungo Stray Dogs is an anime that does a great job of playing off of Bleach's basic formula. Bungo Stray Dogs' power system based around classic literature plays into the creativity of Bleach's power system, and keeping that to an urban fantasy setting does a great job of playing into the roots of Bleach's story. Add in the stylish character designs of the heroes and villains alike, and Bungo Stray Dogs does a great job of following after Bleach.

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11 Durarara!! Modernizes Bleach’s Storytelling Strengths

Produced by Brains' Base & Shuka, based on the light novels by Ryōgo Narita and Suzuhito Yasuda.

Brains' Base's Durarara!! is an urban fantasy story about the lives of various people living in Ikebukuro. The series has a lot of ongoing plot threads and often switches between perspectives of different characters, but most of the story tends to revolve around Mikado Ryugamine and his interactions with Celty Sturluson, a dullahan looking for her head who's gained fame as the legendary "Black Rider".

Oftentimes, it’s the specific way in which a story is written that leaves the biggest impression, and when it comes to Bleach, that definitely happened with Durarara!! Durarara!!’s focus on character-driven stories within a supernatural world captures the core of Bleach’s strength, and the fact that it sticks to an urban fantasy setting makes that comparison all the more palpable. Ryogo Narita even wrote the official Bleach sequel Can’t Fear Your Own World, so it's clear that he’s a writer who does a great job of emulating Bleach’s style both in and out of Durarara!!

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10 Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku Takes Bleach’s Dark Action Even Further

Produced by Studio MAPPA, based on the manga by Yuji Kaku.

Studio MAPPA's Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku stars Gabimaru, a ninja being forced to become a boxed crook for the Shogunate so he can eventually go home to his wife. Gabimaru's mission is to travel to a mysterious island alongside convicts and executioners to search for an elixir of immortality, and an already impossible task becomes even harder when it's discovered that the island is filled with inhuman monsters who can kill them without even trying.

One of the trademarks of Bleach has always been its penchant for dark action and imagery, and Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku perfectly encapsulates that. The dark and often gruesome imagery in Hell’s Paradise is highly reminiscent of Bleach’s art style, and it’s easy enough to see it as a natural evolution of Tite Kubo’s work. Add in the stylish action and simple, yet engaging, power system, and Hell’s Paradise: Jigokuraku does a great job of following the darker aspects of Bleach’s story.

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9 Dark Gathering’s Horror Elements Make Bleach Look Tame

Produced by OLM, based on the manga by Kenichi Kondo.

OLM, Inc.'s Dark Gathering stars Keitaro Gentoga, a college student who's been able to sense ghosts ever since he was cursed by one as a child. Keitaro just wants to live a normal life, but any chance of that is thrown out the window when a tutoring job puts him together with Yayoi Hozuki, a kid who hunts ghosts to eventually kill the one that took her mother's soul, a mission she doesn't hesitate to drag Keitaro into.

Dark Gathering is another story of a character with spiritual powers battling demonic creatures, and the horrific imagery that accompanies every battle is some of the most gruesome and unsettling to be featured in a shōnen series. Because of that, Dark Gathering takes Bleach’s dark aesthetic to heights the original series could only dream of, and with the creativity of its battles, Dark Gathering does a great job of living up to Bleach’s legacy as a dark action series, despite how relatively new it is.

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8 Claymore Mixes Bleach's Aesthetic With Medieval Fantasy

Produced by Studio Madhouse; Based on the manga by Norihiro Yagi

One of Studio Madhouse’s best anime, Claymore is set in a world where people live in fear of shapeshifting monsters called Yoma that feed on humans, and the only ones who can protect them are the Yoma hybrids called Claymores. Among these Claymores is the stoic protagonist Clare, and in her journey to destroy all Yoma, the audience slowly begins to learn that there’s far more to her character than there initially seemed to be.

Despite how different their settings are, Claymore does a great job of following Bleach's legacy. The angle of people wielding swords to battle inhuman monsters is one thing, but Claymore's stylish action and engaging power system are both highly reminiscent of the biggest hallmarks of Bleach's appeal, so anyone who's a fan of one is sure to get a lot out of the other. Claymore's anime never finished adapting the manga, but what little it did cover still excellently followed Bleach's legacy.

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7 Chainsaw Man Elevates Bleach’s Premise To New Heights

Produced by Studio MAPPA, based on the manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto.

Studio MAPPA's Chainsaw Man is set in a world where people are constantly hunted by devils that embody the various fears of mankind. In an encounter with one such devil gone wrong, Denji, who's spent nearly his entire life working as a slave for the yakuza, has his heart fused with his pet devil Pochita and gains the power to become the hybrid devil Chainsaw Man, and he decides to use the opportunities his new powers present him to finally gain a normal life.

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Like Bleach, Chainsaw Man’s basic premise is that of a boy being gifted supernatural powers to fight demonic creatures, and that’s used to create action scenes with a level of gravitas and stylistic flair that are reminiscent of Bleach in the best of ways. More than that, however, Chainsaw Man's character writing and use of quiet moments to build tension or calm is the exact sort of writing Bleach is known for, so it’s easy to see how the two could end up overlapping with one another.

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6 Blue Exorcist Puts A Modern Spin On Bleach’s World

Produced by Studio VOLN, based on the manga by Kazue Kato.

In Studio VOLN's Blue Exorcist, the young delinquent Rin Okumura receives the shock of a lifetime when he learns not only that demons are real, but that Rin is the son of Satan, himself. Rin's foster father is killed protecting Rin from being possessed by Satan, and to avenge his death, Rin vows to use his demonic powers to become an exorcist and one day kill Satan.

Bleach became popular partly because of how it stood out from other shōnen anime, but Blue Exorcist does a great job of modernizing its basic concept. While it follows Bleach’s premise of people with spiritual powers having to protect the world from demonic creatures, Blue Exorcist also adds some of the more modern staples of shōnen anime to Bleach's aesthetic like a school and more typical archetypes of the cast. That allows for Bleach’s work to be viewed through something of a modern lens, and after almost 15 years, Blue Exorcist has done wonders to show how that would work.

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